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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#611

Post by matheusmoreira »

dTal wrote: post #501
matheusmoreira wrote: post #473

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because using my phone while lying down in bed or sitting in my couch is so much more comfortable than using a bulky laptop or personal computer while sitting in a chair. I've written way too much code inside Termux. It's gotten to the point I only use my laptop to edit open street map now. I'm looking for a way to build new Android apps inside Termux itself. Wonder if anyone here's managed it.

I wrote programs on my calculator in high school, an ostensibly narrowly focused device with computing power generously estimated at well under 1% that of your phone, made by a company that didn't really give two shits about their device's programming community. Therefore, it's hard not to come to the conclusion that if someone as dedicated as you is struggling to write programs for your phone, on your phone, it's be…

> Can you not find a real computer that's comfortable to use in bed?

Real computers are not made for that. I don't think there's a comfortable way to use a keyboard and mouse while lying down.

I had better luck trying to find a bed for use with computers instead of the other way around. Even that was extremely difficult. I'd need an over bed or zero gravity workstation that's more expensive than the computer itself. I can't justify this cost for my recreational programming.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#612

Post by awiesenhofer »

soupbowl wrote: post #332
bee_rider wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can install blink shell, panic prompt, or whatever the popular iPhone ssh client of the day is and ssh over to your desktop to get a preview of how this would work. Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, it is fine IMO. The screen is a little bit small. Sometimes if I’m going to SSH from my phone, I’ll put the phone on a little stand in front of the keyboard, so it can sit more like a foot from my face, or whatever (n…

I do this all the time but I have not found a Bluetooth keyboard that is portable and not total junk. Do you have any suggestions?

I had a Logitech Keys-to-go I was quite happy with but recently got myself this 60% mechanical keyboard, mostly because you can get it with a case that doubles as a phone & tablet stand

https://nuphy.com/collections/keyboards/products/air60?varia...

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#613

Post by awesomeMilou »

Y_Y wrote: post #451
awesomeMilou wrote: post #438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a hardware problem, not a software problem. This is a UI validation problem. Apple proved in 2007 that you can port tons of applications over to the smartphone. They had to invent their own language for interactions though ("pinch-to-zoom" etc) and it took them two weeks of focus with all their software development staff involved to fix keyboards on capacitive touch. It may not be possible to reach the same…

Do you really think Apple invented pinch-to-zoom? CMU Sensor Lab had it back in ’85. Steve Jobs coincidentally visited soon after and later claimed to have patented the technology for the iPhone. That was shown not to be true in the big Apple vs. Samsung patent case. References available upon request.

No, I don't think they invented multitouch, I was referring to the name of the gesture. "Pinch to zoom" is afaik their invention, as opposed to "two or more input points applied to the touch-sensitive display that are interpreted as the gesture operation", as the article mentions.

The issue is about naming and communicating UI in an intuitive manner. Which should be solved by acceptance testing.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#614

Post by Given_47 »

hilbert42 wrote: post #574
jillesvangurp wrote: post #458

People produce less text with more errors in more time on mobile. I actively avoid having to type anything on mobile. If I have my laptop open, I'll use whatsapp or signal on that. I often wait replying on either of those until I get my laptop. Just way less frustrating to not have to correct >25% of my key presses. If I have to use the mobile keyboard, I'll often just send a message with typos, no capitals, and skip…

"People produce less text with more errors in more time on mobile." I absolutely agree, typing or editing text on a smartphone is just horrible. There are many times I've started to write an email or post to say HN and I've been so frustrated I've aborted the process and restarted it on my laptop. It's down outright infuriating I have to do this. [I just hope someone of influence at Google reads these posts and acts…

> 3. Along the same lines, selecting or editing, say, a URL from a browser address line is painful. When the URL text exceeds the screen width then trying to get to the end of the text is a damn awkward.

Because editing text on mobile is so tedious for all the reasons already outlined, this is basically the extent the of "editing" text that I do on my phone and it still drives me crazy! Stripping the UTM parameters from a url I've pasted into the address bar, pressing down, and watching the cursor sloooowwwwly move all the way to the end is excruciating. Likewise, the cursor often disappears on me as well.

> 4. UNDO, UBDO! I'm typing this into my browser's HN edit box! If I accidentally refresh the page before posting

Haha, I obsessively copy all if I'm writing > a couple sentences on HN on mobile; accidentally refreshing has wiped my text far too many times

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#615

Post by BagelGuy »

lachlan_gray wrote: post #88
craighay1 wrote: post #14

I sometimes wonder if modal editing (like vim uses) might be a good approach for navigating/editing longform text on touch devices. It does seem like a missed opportunity to have taken the keyboard/mouse approach and then transferred it to touch devices. Even the keyboard layout has no real advantage for two thumb typing on a screen. Approaches that adapt the interface whilst leaning heavily on letter based inference…

On an iPhone if you hold the space bar down the whole keyboard becomes a kind of trackpad which you can use to move the cursor. Since all the keys disappear, it doesn’t seem like a stretch to add something that works like mouse buttons so you could select text or paste in a specific spot in that “mode”. Right now it’s so frustrating to do any kind of selecting.

OH MY GOD THIS IS AMAZING HOW DID I NOW KNOW THIS

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#616

Post by gorkish »

bangonkeyboard wrote: post #489
lolinder wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that typing on a phone (iPhone or Android) these days is substantially easier than typing on an iPad because of swipe. It's still nowhere as efficient as a keyboard in the hands of a skilled typist, but I can often produce text fast enough that it isn't worth getting out my laptop. On an iPad it's far worse, because I actually do have to use the bad QWERTY touchscreen key-by-key. What I keep hoping for as far…

The iPad keyboard has a floating option that takes swipe input. There used to be a split keyboard option, which I actually used all the time, but it was removed from newer models for unfathomable reasons.

Wait, wait.... The new iPads don't support the split keyboard SOFTWARE FEATURE that is still present in the latest OS release and still working on "supported" hardware? I thought the removal of the orientation lock switch was user-hostile, but damn; this is another level.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#618

Post by anotheruser13 »

bertylicious wrote: post #597
Woshiwuja wrote: post #554

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Swipe is terrible and i dont know how people even use it

I've been using swipe for years now on my Android phones (currently a pixel 5). I hold the phone in one hand and use the thumb of the same hand to swipe. Feels much more effortless than "actual" typing. Especially when comparing it to typing with both thumbs.

I've been using swipe since the beta version of Swype. However, Google seems to be enshittifying Gboard. It continues to decline in accuracy, so I can't swipe as fast as I used to. ...sigh...

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#619

Post by alanbernstein »

dredmorbius wrote: post #192
alanbernstein wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I generally agree with you and the parent post. But touch screen is the best UI for photo cropping. This is awkward because it makes me want to split editing tasks between devices.

Better than a Wacom tablet?

I've never used one. I know they're popular with artists but I have very little concept of how they're used. I would not have guessed that anyone uses them to crop images.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#620

Post by wlesieutre »

Woshiwuja wrote: post #554
lolinder wrote: post #487

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that typing on a phone (iPhone or Android) these days is substantially easier than typing on an iPad because of swipe. It's still nowhere as efficient as a keyboard in the hands of a skilled typist, but I can often produce text fast enough that it isn't worth getting out my laptop. On an iPad it's far worse, because I actually do have to use the bad QWERTY touchscreen key-by-key. What I keep hoping for as far…

Swipe is terrible and i dont know how people even use it

This whole comment was written with swipe and didn’t require any corrections, I do much better with swipe than trying to tap all the letters. It’s pretty fast too.
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